EWS Expands into Europe

Martyn Read Oct 27, 2005

  1. Martyn Read

    Martyn Read TrainBoard Supporter

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    Press release from www.ews-railway.co.uk


    Third rail freight operator in France is confirmed as EWS International
    Wednesday 26 October 2005

    The French Minister for Transport has today awarded EWS International a safety certificate, allowing it to operate freight trains on the French rail network and making it the third rail freight operator in France.

    EWS International, who will operate trains on behalf of Euro Cargo Rail, is the Channel Tunnel and mainland Europe rail freight operating division of EWS Railway Holdings Limited.

    A new French company, Euro Cargo Rail, will do the marketing and trading of these new rail freight services. A formal launch of Euro Cargo Rail will occur later this year.

    Euro Cargo Rail's strategy will be to grow the total volume of rail freight services in France by providing businesses with an economically viable alternative to road transportation, whilst operating services safely and to high levels of punctuality and reliability.

    European rail freight services currently account for 8% of the total freight transportation market. Following legislation from the European Commission to facilitate rail freight growth, this is forecast to rise from 8% to 15% by 2020. Euro Cargo Rail’s primary aim is to grow its business safely to assist in meeting this target.

    Euro Cargo Rail will be marketing new rail freight services on a number of routes in northern France, particularly on routes to and from the French border, such as the Calais to Tourcoing, and Calais to Dunkerque rail routes. The first Euro Cargo Rail freight train is expected to operate this winter.

    Euro Cargo Rail has placed an initial order for four Vossloh G1206 freight locomotives, and delivery is expected by the end of this year. These locomotives will be driven by drivers from EWS International. Options for further locomotives and wagons are currently being assessed by Euro Cargo Rail.

    All train drivers for EWS International are fully trained in the safety and operational requirements of the rail network in France, following their years of experience from operating services in partnership with SNCF Fret through the Channel Tunnel.

    Alain Thauvette, Director General of Euro Cargo Rail, said: “The aim of Euro Cargo Rail is to operate safe and reliable rail freight services to increase the size of the rail freight market in France. Euro Cargo Rail will provide its customers with not only an attractive alternative to road transportation, but one that is also environmentally acceptable and safe.”

    Keith Heller, Chief Executive of EWS International and President of Euro Cargo Rail, said: “EWS International is proud to have become the third rail freight operating company in France. With the strong track record on safety and operating performance that EWS International has working with SNCF Fret in the Channel Tunnel, we will extend this to our services for Euro Cargo Rail and its customers.”

    - ends -

    Notes to editors:

    Euro Cargo Rail has already made a number of senior appointments, all with extensive railway experience, to its top team:

    Keith Heller, President - Keith is an experienced railwayman of nearly 40 years. Keith is currently Chief Executive of EWS, the largest rail operating company in Britain.

    Alain Thauvette, Director General - Alain has an extensive experience in managing railway operations and marketing for over 30 years, and has been appointed to develop Euro Cargo Rail as an efficient and safe railway company.

    Ben Smail, Commercial Director - Ben has 15 years of marketing experience. He has been responsible for sales and marketing at Air France Cargo, and for services at Eurotunnel including Le Shuttle.

    Christian Costa, Operations Director - Christian has over 30 years of railway operations experience. He was particularly in charge of the development of several traction activities for SNCF and responsible for the freight operations for Eurotunnel.

    Frédérique Erlichman, Director of Strategy and Development - Frédérique has worked in a railway environment for over 10 years, in a number of roles including marketing and supply management.

    The website for Euro Cargo Rail will be launched later this year. For reference, the address for this site is www.eurocargorail.com

    A copy of the Euro Cargo Rail logo is available on request.

    Euro Cargo Rail is a wholly owned subsidiary of the EWS group of companies, owned by EWS Holdings Ltd. The companies in the group include EWS, EWS International, Engineering Support Group, Railway Approvals Ltd, as well as Axiom Rail, which is a trading name and brand.

    For additional information, please contact Graham Meiklejohn on +44 (0)870 140 5795
     
  2. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    A photo in a recent 'Rail' magazine shows a 66 undergoing tests in France. Apparently they were testing the re-railing procedure for the type.

    Had no idea the tests were so thorough. (But the French don't really want other operators on 'their' tracks) ;)
     
  3. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Is there new business that can be developed? Or will they be trying to take back some traffic from truckers?

    :D

    Boxcab E50
     
  4. Alan

    Alan Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    EWS recon there is a huge amount of new business to be had in the UK, plus some from trucks. The price of fuel, plus the European drivers hours directive are all additional costs for trucks, so railfreight could make a strong comeback - if we can find enough capacity on our rail system. (The system is clogged with pesky passenger trains) :D

    So if they can also get into Europe, they should have a lot of scope for collecting more business.
     
  5. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Perhaps five years ago, I was given a video tape. It was about modern railways in France. Showed a lot of disused yards. And places were facilities had been removed. Am wondering if this infrastructure will need to be upgraded. Or reconstructed from scratch?

    Over here, our transcontinentals are choking on their lack of capacity. After some truly stupid choices the past two decades.... And they refuse to make the investment to replace those removed lines. Yes. They are doing some double tracking, and siding extensions. But this work is not the solution. It's merely a temporary patch. So, despite fuel prices, etc., more and more goes to trucks.

    :(

    Boxcab E50
     
  6. Martyn Read

    Martyn Read TrainBoard Supporter

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    SNCF is widely regarded as being poor at running freight as a customer focussed company, they seem firmly entrenched in all the bad points of 'old style' nationalised railways - hamstrung by unions, overstaffed, poor at customer service etc etc.

    On the plus side, capacity and facilities shouldn't be a big problem in France, the massive investment in TGV lines ought to have the side-effect of freeng up plenty of capacity in the old routes, and they seem to have a policy of 'mothballing' lines that have no traffic rather than pulling them up and selling the land for property development as seems to happen over here. :rolleyes:

    At the moment, all freight through the tunnel to Europe from the UK currently has to be handled by SNCF, they have been seen as an obstruction to developing the international traffic, they are several years behind the rest of Europe in allowing open-access freight operations.

    With a high speed link over here that is partly open and will be completed within a couple of years capacity shouldn't be an issue on the old routes (the new line may even open a new market for continental-sized rolling stock to access the London area!) so if EWS can access markets in the rest of Europe, either directly as open access operators or via cooperation with more customer-focussed operators, growth should be much easier to acheive.

    At the moment, according to Freightmaster there are in the region of 80 trains a week serving the tunnel, it would be great to see more!

    Here's hoping. [​IMG]
     
  7. BoxcabE50

    BoxcabE50 HOn30 & N Scales Staff Member TrainBoard Supporter

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    Martyn-

    That's my question. Who will be charged with bringing back those mothballed lines, and facilities? Will the state finance this? Entirely? Partly? Loan the money to the RR? Or will operators such as EWS need to raise their own capital?

    [​IMG]

    Boxcab E50
     

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